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Datacentre black box recorder gets take-off cash

$9m series B funding round

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Axxana - the startup manufacturing the Phoenix RP black box data centre data recorder which can withstand a jumbo jet crash - has just received $9m in a funding round to help it take off.

The Phoenix RP hardened box receives real-time data in the data centre and asynchronously replicates it to a remote site for complete data protection, without the need for a synchronous link to the remote disaster recovery (DR) site. A third-party asynch replication product is needed for this and Phoenix RP is integrated with and augments EMC’s RecoverPoint Asynchronous Long Distance Replication.

Axxana was founded in 2005 and has received funding from Moshe Yanai, who either funded or founded deduplication technology company Diligent, and mirrored storage array supplier XIV, both acquired by IBM. Before that, he designed the first Symmetrix array for EMC, and he is currently working at IBM.

Axxana claims its Phoenix RP system is the only product to enable 100 per cent disaster recovery with zero data loss over any distance, for significantly less than the cost of traditional synchronously replicating data mirroring alternatives.

The company received $4m from a B-round in April when its Phoenix RP System product became available. In May it announced a partnership with EMC reseller International Computerware Inc. to market Phoenix in the New England area. A month later Avnet Technology Solutions Mexico, EMC’s largest channel partner in that country, agreed to distribute Phoenix in Mexico.

The new funding round was led by Carmel Ventures, and Ronen Nir, a partner at that firm, joins the Axxana board. The existing investors piled in cash for the round as well.

In May Axxana was said to be working with other storage vendors to have their replication technologies integrated with, or certified with, the Phoenix technology. We don't know which ones have yet.

Nir said: "We are impressed with Axxana’s strong founding team and their achievements so far, including impressive endorsement by leading storage vendors worldwide." Axxana partners can be found here and include HP and Dell.

Eli Efrat, Axxana’s CEO, said: “This round of investment... is a significant validation of our business strategy and product roadmap," hinting at a second product to be released not too far in the future. ®